


Hit Me Up

by PagetPaulson



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-01-27 02:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 8,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1712444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PagetPaulson/pseuds/PagetPaulson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Running into a psychotic man in a local convenient store sends Agents Prentiss and Hotchner spiraling into a drugged haze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Following the older man into the nearest convenient store, Emily slung her favorite purse over her shoulder and shoved her keys into her leather coat's pocket. "Hotch, I told you that I'm fine. This is really unnecessary," she sighed.

"Prentiss you look pale and we don't need you getting sick on this trip," the Unit Chief stated distractedly as he looked at the medicines in the second aisle. "Tums or Pepto?"

Emily rubbed her hand over her forehead, the wrinkles practically disappearing from sight as her other teammate walked up beside her with a bag of pretzels in his hand. "Hotch really, I'm gonna be fine."

Reid slipped a pretzel into his mouth as he shook his head. "You looked pretty sick in the car. This is probably going to help you feel better, unless you didn't eat anything beforehand which would mean you'd most likely end up getting sick a little after you take the medicine." Seeing a glare from the brunette woman at his side, the genius held out his snack bag. "Pretzel?"

"I'm fine," she growled.

"Everybody down! GET DOWN NOW!"

Immediately reaching for his gun, Hotch stepped before his subordinates to take on the screaming man at the convenient store's counter. "Don't move," the stoic man whispered carefully, feeling the other BAU members behind him with their guns drawn. "Put the gun down and your hands up."

The flustered younger man was quick to shake his head, the gun wiggling in his hand as he tried to point it at the three agents coming toward him. "N-No! Get away!"

"Sir put the gun down." Emily held her gun steady as she inched forward, keeping her eyes on the younger man who let his gaze flicker from them back to the woman behind the counter. "No one needs to get hurt."

"I just n-need my medication," he stuttered. "I need it!"

Emily slowly nodded her head. "What's your name, sir?"

"Alan."

"Ok Alan, we can get you your medication without hurting anybody here. Just put the gun away."

The blond haired man tightened his hold on the gun he had stolen from his brother's safe and inched toward the check-out counter. "Just give me my medication!"

"I'm sorry sir," the woman cried, her hands held up beside her head. "We can't fill your prescription until the tenth of the month. Those are your doctor's orders sir, I'm sorry."

"Give it to me!"

"Alan," Hotch called, not seeing that his agents were going on either side of him and taking steps forward to infiltrate the crazed man's space. "We can get you your medication if you list to us, alright? All you have to do is put the gun down and let us walk you out of here."

Alan's eyes blinked rapidly, trying his best to unblur his sight so he could see the agents clearly. "I just need it," he whimpered, turning back to the shaking woman who could give him his medicine. "Can you give me anything? I need something!"

The dark haired woman quickly nodded her head, going to shovel out the syringes they held locked in one of their safety boxes.

Emily clicked her jaw, immediately taking a step forward when Reid was tugged in the counter's direction, his revolver falling from his hands. "Let him go, Alan," she ground out, her thumb turning her safety off on her gun. "Hurting a FBI agent is a federal offense and I doubt you'll be wanting to spend your next couple of years in prison. Let go of him."

"No! I need him!" Alan shoved the scrawny agent into the hard counter, his hand squeezing the life out of his bony arm. "Take the medicine."

The genius agent quickly took the syringe fro the woman behind the counter and handed it to the older man. "Here."

"No, you take it first."

Emily took a tentative step forward. "Alan you can't make him do that."

"Yes I can! I can!" Turning, his crazed eyes looked harshly at the unnamed cashier. "What is this? What's the drug?"

"Ritalin," she quickly nodded.

Alan tugged the sleeve to Reid's shirt up, taking the medicine from him and fiddling with it in his hands. "Hold your arm out."

"I can't." He couldn't do it, he couldn't. There was no way he was risking getting addicted again.

Emily took a breath before putting her safety back on and shoving her gun into her holster, her hands rising up beside her head. "Ok Alan, let him go."

"No!"

She calmly stepped forward and nodded to the younger man, her eyes connecting with her partner's for a split second to let him know that she would take care of it. "He's no allowed to have that, but I can. Inject me, ok?"

Hotch hardened his gaze on his subordinate, noticing the man who held the gun softening his watering eyes on the brunette woman. "Prentiss."

"Just let him go and you can have me," she nodded. A gasp left her mouth when she was pulled against the strong man's chest, her left arm sticking out as he pulled up her sleeves as quick as he could. "Ok ok," she tried to calm, looking up to the blond with a soft gaze. "Just calm down."

The woman behind the counter tapped furiously on the surface to try and get the others' attention. "There are very bad side effects to injecting Ritalin."

"I don't care!"

Emily bit down painfully hard into her bottom lip, knowing that she was drawing blood as the needle was pushed into her vein.


	2. Chapter 2

Falling back against the check out with her head aching, Emily felt the deranged man grip her arm tighter.

"So? What's happening?"

The FBI agent put her hand to her head. "I'm just a little dizzy."

"It may take a little while for the drug to take effect," the cashier nodded, watching as the brunette woman beside the man with the gun had pain written across her features.

Hotch kept his gun trained on the man as he watched him inject the drug into his already abused arm. "Reid," he whispered. "Try the door."

"Hotch there are a lot of people in here," he cautioned, his hands wrapping back around his gun as he glanced around to the people on the floor with their hands on their heads. "What if he hears me and shoots somebody?"

"I already pressed the alarm on my phone. Check the door and see if it's unlocked."

Emily did her best to focus her eyes as she noticed her coworker inching toward the door. Feeling her stomach beginning to gurgle, she covered her mouth with a shaking hand to keep her sickened belch from coming out. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

One of the hostages on the floor eyed a small trash can by the entrance door and quickly dove for it, throwing it in front of the FBI agent and trying to hold her up as she threw up into the metal bin. "Are you ok?"

"Shut up!"

Emily ran the back of her hand over her lips once she was done, letting herself be hauled back up by Alan's strong grip after sending a sympathetic gaze to the brave woman that tried to help her. "I'm dizzy," she told him, looking into the blonde's eyes to try and get his attention. "I think it's more lie vertigo," she sighed. "And I feel shaky."

"Me too," the man with the gun nodded frantically. Looking back to the woman who had given him the medication, Alan slammed his foot into the shelves of candy and magazines. "I need something else."

"Sir that can be very dangerous."

"Give it to me!"

With his eyes still trained on the scene before him, Hotch felt his body stiffen at the feeling of the barrel of a gun sticking into his side.

"Give me the gun," the man snarled, sending a smile to his friend that had the other agent on his knees by the door.

Hotch stood straighter, holding his hands up by his head and letting the unidentified man by his side take his gun, watching as Alan forced his subordinate's head down to make her snort two blue pills that he had crushed up for her. "You're with Alan, aren't you?"

"Are you fucking stupid? Of course I am. My friend needs his medicine, so he's going to get his medicine."

The Unit Chief was shoved forward, his hands coming out in front of him to block his body and stop himself from falling into the counter. "There is no need for guns," he tried to persuade the men, seeing how jittery the woman by his side was becoming as the drugs began taking over her body. "We'll do what you want if you let the others go and just put the guns away, alright?"

Alan looked pleadingly to the agent he had in his hold, feeling a small sense of innocence fall over him at the look she was trying to give him with her bloodshot eyes. "I just want my medicine."

The man behind Hotch gave a nod, watching as his partner let the others in the convenient store go before locking up the doors again. "Now take that."

Hotch, refusing to let either of the men near him touch his arm, pushed his own sleeve up before taking the new syringe in his hand. He couldn't continue to let Emily get abused the way she was. "What is it?"

"What does it matter? Take it!"


	3. Chapter 3

Morgan did his best to hold his angered superior back as the ambulance finally came into the parking lot, the medics coming and hauling Emily onto a stretcher to put her into the back of the vehicle. "Man you gotta calm down!"

"I have to go with her," he argued, breaking free of the younger man's hold and charging over to the ambulance. "Excuse me? I need to go and make sure she's ok."

The head EMT quickly took the small flashlight from his pocket and checked the FBI agent's eyes. "Sir were you injected too?"

"Yes," the Unit Chief nodded quickly. He had been given at least four different drugs, all of which his subordinate had tested out before him just like Alan wanted her to.

"Alright sir, you're going to have to come with us."

Hotch let the younger man help him into the ambulance, his legs wobbling and head running in circles from the effects, and sit him down just next to where his coworker was lying. "Emily? Are you ok?"

The brunette woman frowned as she tried to look up, her hand immediately coming up to hide her eyes from the lights in the ambulance. "Too light!"

He could hear a slur in her words, and Hotch was quick to lean his head back and rest it against the wall. He was way too dizzy to try and make conversation at the moment.

"Sir?" the EMT questioned, trying his best to hold the now almost sleeping man up as his partner took care of the woman who lie on the stretcher, trying to calm her down seeing as how she was on the verge of tears. "Sir I need you to tell me what he made you take, alright? Can you do that?"

Hotch frowned, his eyes closed. "Ritalin."

The medic automatically reached for his stethoscope and checked the agent's heart rate. "What else did he give you?"

"I-I don't know. Some blue pills or something and then other ones that had to be injected."

Holding the now moaning woman's hand, the redheaded EMT looked to her partner. "Charlie, I think she's going into shock."

Hotch finally opened up his eyes, squeezing hard at the medic's shoulder to take away the pain he felt from the brightness of the lights. "Emily? Emily are you ok?"

"Sir you have to sit back."

"Emily!" the Unit Chief screamed, watching as the other profiler's eyes glazed over and her body grew still on the stretcher.

"She's going into shock," the redheaded woman alerted, her hands grabbing for the oxygen mask and setting it over Emily's nose and mouth. She banged on the wall of the ambulance to signal to the driver. "Faster! We need to get them to the hospital!"

Waking up with the bedsheet pulled all the way up to her shoulders, Emily had to blink a couple of times to try and clear up her vision. "Oh God," she groaned, the pillow catching her head as it fell back when the spins began to hit her.

"How do you feel?"

Emily peeked out from behind her hands to glance into the bed next to her. "Hotch?" Her voice came out scratchy and husked as she tried to sit herself up in her bed. "Are you ok?"

"Am I ok?" Hotch let out what sounded like a laugh as he readjusted his robe, throwing the sheet off of him to get the sweating to stop. "Are you ok? You've been in a coma for about two days now."

Emily's eyes practically fell out of her head at the news, her heart pounding in her chest so hard she thought her breastbone would crack. "You're lying."

The Unit Chief shook his head. "Do you feel like shit?"

"Like extreme shit," she huffed, her hand against her chest as she tried to moisten her dried out tongue.

"We're going through detox," the older man coughed, reaching for the water between their beds to try and soothe his throat. "I've angered maybe four nurses by now with my complaints."

Emily felt her stomach begin to turn, a dry heave choked up in the back of her throat as she dove for the other cup of water. "I feel disgusting," she retched, gulping down the cooling beverage to try and stop her stomach from aching. "It's like my organs are shutting down or something."

Hotch kept his soft gaze on the brunette woman at his side, his hands curling around the paper cup. "There was a certain drug that Alan gave us, and for that we're under observation for the next week."

"What was it?"

He fully turned her way, seeing what spirit she had left crumbling down behind her dark eyes when he opened his mouth. "Dilaudid."


	4. Chapter 4

Sitting herself down somberly on the edge of her leather couch, Emily settled her elbows to her knees and eyed the small vial she had staring back at her from her coffee table. She and her superior had finally been let out of the hospital a few hours prior and he had treated her to a hot cup of coffee at what he knew was her favorite diner.

They had been leaning on one another after a week and a half of being under observation, both of them having cravings and doing their best to support and hold one another up when things got really bad.

Emily had gotten so bad one day that she broke one of the visitor's chairs during a fit, the hospital workers having to tie her down to the bed until she calmed down because giving her a drug to sedate her was out of the question.

And now here she was: sitting alone in her quiet apartment staring at the beautiful liquid curse that she had taken from her friend.

Dr. Lyle Davis. He was looking after her in the hospital, the man she had fallen in love with back in her early college years, and when he brought her into his office to see how she was doing and he turned his back, she stole a handful of containers she saw sitting on a shelf not three feet away.

Now she was stuck with the decision.

Should she take it?

Emily let her clasped hands seal over her mouth as she thought, her tongue flicking up against the roof of her mouth. She was still craving the cursed drug, and she knew that her body needed it, but what would that make her if she fell into something like this? A drug addict? One of those people you see on those television shows that have their families bombarding them and forcing them into a treatment facility half-way across the country?

She would be just like Reid.

The brunette woman let her eyes tear up at the thought of her friend and how far he'd come in his recovery. How could she disappoint him and do the absolute worst thing that had ever plagued at her mind?

Quickly reaching for her phone, Emily sat back and leaned into the cushions as she punched in the number she so desperately knew not to call, but felt that she needed to. He was the only one who could help her.

Hearing the brunette on the other end of the phone pick up, the FBI agent bit down hard on her thumbnail. "Hey," she whispered, her throat constricting as she felt the lump form. "Do you think you can come over? I really need your help."

"I'll be right there."

Emily waited with the glass container clasped tight between her two hands, her eyes never leaving the syringes she had stolen from a cart outside in the hospital's hallway that now sit motionless on the glass of her coffee table. They were taunting her, begging her to fill up with the liquid that she absolutely loathed herself for treasuring.

At the sound of a knocking on her door, the woman in tears jumped up from her couch and threw the door open. "Thank God," she sobbed, pulling her friend into the apartment.

Hotch held tightly onto his subordinate, following her up the stairs and into her bedroom.


	5. Chapter 5

Reddened midnight eyes peeled themselves open, the FBI agent's sockets aching when the barely there light that was in the room made it into her line of sight. What had she done?

Emily took in a short breath and felt her throat constrict, her chest too tight to breathe in deeply, long lashes batting against her cheeks as she looked across the room.

Her boss was lying in her bed.

Sitting up, Emily looked down to her bruised inner elbow. The new injection site was a lot more red than the others, and there was a small speck of dried blood right beside the small hole. Emily's lips quivered at the sight, her mind twisting and gut knotting up as she felt bile rising in her throat. She was disgusting.

The brunette woman quickly sat up from her spot at the foot of the bed and crawled over to her friend, her fingers lightly caressing his freshly shaven cheek before tapping him awake. "Hotch? Hotch can you hear me?"

"Emily?" he groaned, his eyes opening to see the tearful woman above him.

Emily was quick to jump out of the way when the older man pushed himself up off of the bed and rushed for her bathroom. Racing behind him, Emily let out a breath, getting down on her knees beside him on the floor and rubbing her hand up and down his back as he retched. "Do you want some flat soda or something?" she whispered, a tear falling down her cheek. She's the one who had made him sick and feel bad, and the brunette woman couldn't feel any worse about it.

Hotch shook his head, sitting back once he had reached up and flushed the toilet. "I'm alright." He looked to the woman at his side, the caramel eyes he had gotten from his mother melting at the beautiful ivory features being marred by the tears that streamed down her cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" she cried, her hand itching to reach up and scratch at the injection site in her elbow. "We fucking injected dialudid, Hotch! That's what's wrong!"

Hotch let his head fall. "I should have stopped it," he nodded. There was a certain sense of sadness in his voice, the pitch cracking with every syllable spoken. "It's my fault."

"It's mine."

The Unit Chief grabbed the younger woman's hand. "Emily look at me." Waiting until those dark brown eyes looked up to his, Hotch tightened his hold on the agent. "We're both wrong in this, ok? It's not your fault and neither is it mine."

Emily took her hands out of the brunette's and instead laid her hands upon his naked chest, a hot breath leaving her mouth and whispering over his skin. "I feel disgusting," the silent words came out, her lip parting as she tried to moisten her dried out tongue. "I never thought this would happen to any of us, you know? What are we doing?"

Hotch felt tears enter his eyes, something that never happened when he was by himself let alone in front of someone that he deeply cared for. "I like it," he choked out, letting his friend throw her arms around him and cling as tight as he could, just as a child would to their parent after waking up from a nightmare. But there was no waking up from this hell. They were stuck. "It made me feel good."

"Me too," she sighed, her salty tears falling against his skin and rolling down his back. "But we can't keep doing this."

"I know."

Lifting her head, Emily brushed her nose against that of the older man. "But we can be here for each other, you know? Maybe if one of us really feels the need to do it then the other will stop them."

Hotch tried his best to hide his frown, pulling his subordinate that much closer to his sweating body. "How are we supposed to do that?"

Emily's hands slid up to Hotch's warm cheeks and cupped them. "I don't know," she gasped. "I have no idea."


	6. Chapter 6

"Hotch," the brunette woman moaned from her side of the couch, a laugh escaping her lips when she felt her boss' foot gently nudge and collide with hers. "You know what time it is?"

The Unit Chief sat himself up on his elbows just enough to look over to the woman who lay on the couch with him. "No," was his immediate answer, a goofy smile spreading over his face.

Emily laughed, shoving her foot into the other brunette's. "I need to know!"

"But I don't know," he groaned childishly, finally sitting up and crawling over to the younger woman. "You have a watch?"

Feeling her vision begin to blur, Emily slowly shook her. "I'm kinda tired now."

Hotch wedged himself between the back of his friend's couch and Emily's warm body, wrapping his arms tight around her so she wouldn't fall off the couch. "Go to bed."

"But it's morning."

Listening vaguely to Emily's slurred words, Hotch looked up past her now lightly snoozing body and squinted, his eyes finally finding the red numbers blaring on the digital clock that sit below her television. "I got it!"

Emily frowned at the loud noise, her hands rubbing against the older man's pecks as she closed her eyes. "Huh?"

"The time. It's three o'clock."

"But it's dark," came the voice muffled from her head nestling into her superior's chest.

Hotch took a moment to think before giving a nod of the head, settling down against the armrest of the couch and using it as a pillow while he and his friend snuggled together. "So it's the morning then. We should go to sleep."

Emily pressed a light kiss to the older man's shirt before quickly dozing off, her left hand clasped in his right with her thumb pressed against Hotch's light pulse beating against the skin of his wrist.

It had been going on for fifteen days.

The pair would get together every other night and inject one another at the same exact time so if the drug took over one of them too fast, they wouldn't miss the vein when sticking the needle into the other's arm.

Tonight they had injected twice, in only a course of five hours between takes.

Hearing a cell phone ringing, Emily tapped at her friend's chest with her brows furrowed. "Hotch that's yours."

"It could be yours," he grumbled, snuggling deeper into the comfortable armrest with his nose buried in the younger woman's dark hair.

Emily let out a sigh before rolling over, letting Hotch's arms stay wrapped around her waist and his hands splaying out over her stomach as she reached for the ringing phone on her coffee table. "Hello?"

"Who is this?"

Emily shook her head. "Who is this?"

"This is Haley. Is Aaron there?"

"Hotch," the brown eyed woman whispered, reaching behind her and rubbing her knuckles softly against his cheek. "It's Haley." Once the phone was taken from her hand, Emily laid hers over the one that was still on her stomach, hearing the rumbling of her now aching belly. The side effects of this damn drug were utterly repulsive.

"Haley? It's late, why are you calling?"

"Aaron it's eight in the morning."

Coughing against the plastic of his phone, the Unit Chief looked over to the clock below the television and cursed. "I'm sorry, I guess I didn't set my alarm."

"So are you going to come over and take Jack today or no?"

Hotch fought the urge to bite into his ex-wife at the tone in her voice, but reluctantly shook his head to get rid of some of the anger he had steaming within him. "I told you I would be over at noon, didn't I?"

"Yes, but I th-"

"Then that's it. Goodbye Haley."

Emily bit her lip, turning herself in the older man's hold so she could look up into his bloodshot eyes. "You ok?"

"Yeah," he grumbled, leaning down and unthinkingly pressing a kiss to Emily's beautiful ebony hair. "How did you sleep?"

"Crazy dreams, but that's to be expected right?"

Hotch stared down into the ivory woman's warm eyes, his hands lying against the small of her back. "Always. How do you feel?"

The ambassador's daughter let her eyes blink heavily. "A little nauseous. You?"

"Dizzy," he sighed, lying his head back onto the armrest.

"Go back to bed," the beautiful woman cooed, resting her head in the crook of her friend's neck and breathing in the familiar scent. "Just set an alarm for around ten and you should feel better by then, you know?"

"Stay with me?"

Emily shared a gentle smile with the older man before standing from the couch at the sound of a knocking on her apartment door. "Give me a minute and I'll be back, ok?" She quickly took a gulp of water from the bottle she had open on the counter before making her way to the foyer and opening her door, the midnight eyes she had received from her mother darker than ever at the figure she saw with a box of cupcakes in his hands. "Reid?"

"Hi," he smiled. "Can I come in?"


	7. Chapter 7

Looking at her friend as a deer in the headlights, her thoughts and fears racing through her at a million miles a minute at the sight of her genius friend standing in her doorway. "Reid," she whispered. "Hi."

"Hey," he smiled. "Is this a bad time? Can I come in?"

"I'm sorry, did we have plans or something?"

Hearing the words Emily tried her best to annunciate from the other room, Hotch immediately got up off of the couch and gathered up the bottles and syringes, running his way into the kitchen and shoving everything into the crisper drawer, knowing that their teammate wouldn't need to come in here for any reason. If they were caught, they were dead.

Reid frowned before shaking his head, trying his best to smile at the older woman who blocked him from entering the apartment. "No, I just thought I'd come over. That's ok, right?"

Emily let out a smile, a nervous laugh sitting on her tongue as she finally let him through the door. "No, that's completely alright," she nodded. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Choosing to ignore the quick blinking of the other brunette, Reid just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Well why don't you come in?" The brown eyed woman held her breath as she slowly led him around the corner, her hand clenching down on his arm once the rounded into the living room.

Hotch nodded from his spot on the couch. "Reid hi."

Emily grinned at the older man who sat on her couch. Their secret was still safe.

"Hi Hotch," the scrawny man smiled, walking with his friend into her living room and sitting himself down on the couch. "I didn't know you'd be here."

"And I didn't know you'd be here. Did you two have plans?"

Reid watched as his superior discreetly brought his hand up to itch the inside of his covered elbow. A tick? Nervous? "No," he stated slowly, setting the cupcakes down on the expensive coffee table that seemed to have tiny pin hole marks in the wooden parts. "I hadn't spent quality time with Emily in a while and I thought that we could maybe watch 'A Clockwork Orange'. Emily said it's really good."

"That's nice," Hotch nodded, doing his best to keep his eyes on the younger man even though he saw Emily out of the corner of his eye trying her best to get comfortable in her spot on the couch.

Reid gave a nod of the head. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you two had plans." He turned to lock his eyes with his friend's, smiling wide and challenging her not to falter under his gaze. "I would have called beforehand but I thought that it would be nice if I tried to surprise you."

Emily bit hard into her lip to keep from crying at the innocent look in the genius' brown eyes. "That's sweet," she choked out, reaching for his hand and giving it a light squeeze. "Why don't you let me clean up a little and you get the DVD ready? Hotch has the day with Jack anyway, so we have the entire time to ourselves. Sound good?"

"Of course. May I use your bathroom?" He excuse himself from the living room and slipped his phone from his pocket. "Ruben?" he whispered, locking the bathroom door behind him when he heard his sponsor's voice on the other end. "There's a problem here. I need your help."


	8. Chapter 8

Emily was quick to catch her friend's hand when Reid finally made his way out of the room, her saddened brown eyes looking into those of the older man as she felt her heart begin to sputter. "Hotch what if he finds out?"

"He won't," Hotch insisted, his voice hard.

Emily's head shook, her dark hair flying as the tears that entered her eyes threatened to fall. "He knows the signs, Hotch. Were we doing anything wrong? Did I say something?"

Taking the younger woman's face between his coarse hands, Hotch set his forehead just against hers. "Listen to me," he whispered forcefully. "He won't figure out anything, alright? We know how behavior works and we know how to analyze it, and if anyone was to figure out anything, it would be us. If we think that we're behaving differently, then we fix it."

"I don't know if I can do that." The chocolate eyed woman bit her lip to keep from outright sobbing in the arms of the other agent. "I don't want them to find out, Hotch," she cried, her hands coming up to cup his cheeks just as he was doing to her.

"You have to calm down and realize that no one is going to find out. You can keep a secret, can't you?"

Emily did her best to stop her trembling chin, her eyes connecting with the older man's when he let his nose tap at hers. "I think so." Biting her lip, the FBI agent let her thumbs caress her friend's cheeks. "But what if I don't want to?"

Hotch frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I want to stop! I don't like this anymore!" Sobs wracked her body at the thought of someone finding out about her and her drug using before she actually came out and told people about it first. She needed to gain the upper hand in this situation or her life wouldn't be able to be rebuilt. "It makes me feel disgusting when I wake up and I'm either trying to heave on an empty stomach or my head is spinning so bad that I think it'll fall off. I don't like it anymore."

The older man softened his gaze on the younger woman, feeling her pain radiate through him as he pulled her closer. "I'm so sorry," he said softly, his fingers grabbing lightly onto her hair. "I should have stopped this a while ago."

"No it's my fault too."

Hearing a sound from down the hall, Hotch pulled back. "Don't tell him," he chastised, grabbing onto her hands and holding them hard in his. "We can go to someone together, but if he finds out now then neither of us are going to get the upper hand."

Emily was hesitant but gave a shrug of the shoulders. "But he's our friend. He'll understand us, won't he?"

"With what we're doing? We've been taking the drug that he got addicted on because he was kidnapped and injected at least five times. Do you think he'll take that well?"

Emily didn't have a chance to respond when the sound of footsteps reentering the living room caught her attention, and she turned her head to see her genius friend come in with his cell phone in hand. "Hey," she smiled shakily. "Find everything ok?"

"Yeah," the younger man smiled, standing in the entranceway of the room so he wouldn't overwhelm the two agents. "So is the movie ready?"

Doing her best to discreetly wipe the tears away from her eyes, Emily shook her head and stood up from her couch. "I'm sorry, I can get it ready for us now."

Hotch let his eyes move over to the doorway, his ears perking at the sound of someone new knocking at Emily's apartment door. "Emily, are you expecting anyone else?"

"No," she whispered, confused with so many people coming to visit her at once.

"Oh that's my friend," Reid nodded readily, running to open the door for his sponsor and missing the frightened looks of his coworkers in the other room. Leading his friend of now three years down the hall to meet the newly formed drug addicts, the genius profiler forced his eyes to hit those of his crying friend sitting on her couch. "This is Ruben Aldridge. He's my sponsor."

Emily fought hard against her quivering lips and shook her head. "We don't need him," her inaudible words came out, her hand reaching out for Hotch's and holding on tight.

"I think you do."


	9. Chapter 9

Emily's heart went cold, constricting her chest until it was as if it had shriveled up and fell into her stomach, the blood seeping out into the bubbling acid. "Hello," she said carefully, her eyes connecting with the unfamiliar man's, doing her best to show her strength. "Would you like to sit down?"

"Thank you," he smiled, sitting down beside Reid across the living room from the other two who sat on the couch. "How are you feeling today?"

"Would you like something to drink?"

Ruben noted the woman's deflection with a gentle nod to the man at his side. "No thank you," he replied politely, taking out his notepad from his suit jacket pocket and clicking on his pen. "Agents Emily Prentiss and Aaron Hotchner, correct?"

Hotch sat closer to the brunette he had gotten so attached to, speaking up so she could have a moment to collect herself. "Yes, that's us. Can we help you with something?"

"I think you know very well why I'm here. I am a specialized addiction psychologist and I've been a sponsor for Spencer and three others for a total of fifteen years."

"We don't need help," Emily interjected. "We already have a plan, ok? Thank you but we don't need this."

Ruben tried to send a supportive smile to the younger woman, watching as the FBI agent scratched at her inner elbow with her free hand, Hotch's upper lid to his left eye twitching the longer he kept his eyes on him. "I'm sorry to be harsh Ms. Prentiss, but I know the signs of an addict when I see one. It's best to let a third party in for help."

"We haven't been doing it for that long though."

"Time isn't a big factor in this, it's addiction, which can take on at any time. And from what I can see, addiction has already overcome the both of you."

Emily's eyes blinked back the heavy tears she felt clouding them. "You don't understand," she spoke through grit teeth.

Ruben sat back in his chair, feeling Hotch's eyes staring at him with a hard gaze. He definitely wanted no part in what he was trying to bring them. "But I do. You see, from the ages of thirteen to eighteen, I was addicted to prescription painkillers. I had broken two bones in my leg and while stuck in the hospital, because I was so skinny they couldn't give me an IV so they had to give me pills. After only two days, I was hooked on Xanax."

"That doesn't mean you know how to help us. We're fine on our own."

"On your own, you're sinking," the counselor said. "It's my job to help you two get into rehab programs where you can be in a safe environment to get better and grow stronger."

Emily clenched her hand around her friend's, her puppy dog eyes staring at the strange man in her living room. "I want to stop," she nodded feverishly. "I don't like it anymore."

"And it's good that you can recognize that you're not ok, you're already at the first step."

The brown eyed woman's chin trembled at the look she received from Reid, her heart breaking at the pity he was trying to hide away. "But do we really need rehab? We can just get weaned off of it or something like that, right?"

Ruben's pen paused, his writing halting so he could look up to the two who were basically hanging onto one another for dear life. "I'm sorry, but the only way to treat something as serious as drug abuse is, in my opinion, going away to treatment facilities. And the one thing that I'm good at is helping people like you, and I can call up the best centers in the country right now to reserve rooms for you."

"Could we maybe go together?"

Seeing the desperation in the younger woman's eyes, it broke Ruben's heart to shake his head, denying the agent of what she thought she truly needed. "I'm sorry but that won't be in the cards."

"Now wait a minute," Hotch seethed, holding his crying friend closer to his side. "I'm not leaving her side."

Not looking at the genius man at his side who he knew was already on his phone, Ruben sat straighter in the chair he was occupying. "Agent Hotchner, to have this work out then you two will have to be apart for it. Once the two week period is passed, that's when you're allowed contact to the outside world and if your therapists think that you're strong enough at that point, then you can contact each other. Right now you two are too dependent on one another and going into treatment together just isn't an option."

Emily shook her head, wrapping her arms around her supervisor's waist as her sobs wracked her body. "I can't leave him."

Hotch pressed a loving kiss to his friend's head. "I'm not going to leave you."

"This is going to be hard and you're going to feel broken, that's understandable. But to get better, this is what needs to happen. You want to get better, don't you?"

Emily took in a breath before shakily nodding her head, her tears melding into the threaded material of Hotch's shirt. "I don't like this anymore," she whispered. Looking up to the man at her side, the ivory brunette pressed a quivering kiss to her friend's stubbled chin. "I'm going to miss you."

"No," he said gravely, his tears choking the words that wanted to leave his throat. "Emily I'm not going to leave you."

"Aaron," the brunette sobbed, her head shaking as she tried to break from his grip. "Aaron please. I want to get better."

"We can! We both can!"

Reid looked away from his friends and nodded to the man at his side. "They're just outside," he whispered.

"Get them now."

Emily fought herself, wanting to pull her boss into a warm hug and keep him glued to her body and never let him go when she knew that there was no chance for her to get better with the way they worked together. "Baby please," she cried. "It's not that long to be away from each other. We'll be ok."

Ruben stood from his chair and welcomed his friends into the room. "Emily, Aaron, these are doctors Robert Peete, Holly Anderson and McKay Mattson. They're willing to escort you both to the treatment centers if you're ready."

"We already have rooms?"

The sponsor straightened his glasses before smiling to the red eyed woman. "I told you I work fast."

Emily held her breath as she finally got into the van with two of the doctors, her hand gripping the front of her shirt as she watched Ruben and the last doctor pile into the blue car just behind them, a hesitant Aaron Hotchner glancing over to her one last time before closing the door, his sad eyes finally disappearing from sight. She had to remind herself that this was them, something to make them both stronger.

But missing him for two weeks, no way to contact one another, was surely going to break her heart.


	10. Chapter 10

Four months and seven days after entering treatment at the Nicholas Sents Center for Change just outside Morristown, Tennessee, Emily was smiling brightly at herself in the bathroom mirror.

She hadn't taken any kind of drug or medication since the day she walked through the rehab center's warm, welcoming doors, and hadn't have any kind of craving since her seventeenth day. Her doctors had been the same doctors and therapists that had taken her to the center and had been the most loving and understanding people the agent had ever met.

They had helped her begin to first think about why she had wanted to take the drugs in the first place, and then once she had cried her eyes out for almost every hour of the day, they then let her realize why she continued to take them and why it had been so hard to stop.

And why she and her boss had become so dependent on one another.

But now she was smiling. Raking her fingers through her grown out curly hair, Emily watched as the sun sparkled against her dark chocolate eyes. Her therapists had told her that she was finally getting a visitor, and she couldn't be happier about it. Sure, her friends and even Hotch had kept in touch throughout her treatment, but no one other than her mother, who had only come to tell her that she was thinking of putting her daughter's apartment on the market because she hadn't been there for months, had come to actually see her.

"Emily?"

The brunette woman quickly made her way through her room and opened up the door, smiling to the owner of the rehab center she had been shipped off to. "Melanie, hi," she smiled, glancing down to readjust the 'v' of her top.

"Hi honey," the older woman said warmly, reaching out to touch her patient's arm. "Your visitor is here."

Emily's eyes widened, looking over to the clock in her room to see that already two hours had passed by. "Already?"

"Already."

Biting down into her lip, Emily let her eyes stayed glued to the greatest mother figure that she had ever had. "What if I'm not ready?" she whispered, fear overcoming her at the thought of breaking down in the arms of whoever had come to see her.

Melanie pressed a warm kiss to the agent's cheek before enveloping her into a hug, letting Emily lay her head to her shoulder and feel the warmth from her body radiate onto hers. She needed to be comforted, something that she hadn't been given since whoever her druggie friend had been to her. "Sweetheart, you know that you're ready; you've been waiting months for this. It's just another step closer to getting out of here," she grinned, pulling back to wipe the tears from the brunette's freshly made-up cheeks. "It's alright to be nervous. Just remember that they love you, ok?"

Emily took in a breath, nodding her head as she let the older woman gently push her through the halls and help her step out the front doors. "Can we maybe tell them to come tomorrow?" she asked, scared of what she would see when she walked around to the side of the building where the cars were parked.

"You'll do just fine."

Emily's eyes flickered toward the parking lot as she left the older woman to walk down the front steps, making her way toward the stables when she didn't see any new cars or people around the building. "Hello?" She pushed her hair away from her face as she entered the horses stable, climbing up over the bale of hay that sat in front of the back barn doors. "Anyone?"

"Surprise!"

Brown eyes widened, the ivory woman's hand slapping over her heart when all of her friends popped out from behind the only empty stall in the stable. "Oh my God," she cracked, tears welling in her eyes when she saw balloons flying up and streamers being thrown her way. "Hi."

Reid was the first to step forward, tentatively holding out his arms to the older woman with a smile on his face. "It's good to see you."

Emily excitedly nodded her head before launching herself into her friend's arms. "I missed you," she laughed, tears spilling down her cheeks as she suffocated the genius in a hug. "Thank you so much, Reid."

After getting hugs from all of her friends and the double cheek kiss from her favorite Italian, Emily did her best to wipe the tears that had stained her cheeks. "I didn't know it would be all of you."

"We thought it would be nice," JJ grinned. "You haven't seen any of us in forever and if we all just came one at a time then we'd have to do all of this a lot more times than necessary."

Emily laughed, slapping her blond friend gently on the arm as they led her out and into the training ring. "So," she nodded, clearing her throat to lessen the lump that had formed in her throat. "Hotch couldn't come?"

"He really wanted to, Em."

Garcia smiled sadly to the older woman beside her, holding tight onto her hand. "Treatment has been really rough on him."

Emily did her best to return the smile that every one around her was doing their best to send her way. "No, I understand. I've been going through the same thing," she chuckled darkly, pulling at her shirt to try and rid her sweat. "It can be hard, I know. I just miss him."

"You think I'd miss your party?"

Looking up at the painfully familiar voice, Emily's hands came up to cover her gaping mouth.

Hotch grinned, glancing to the horse by his side and patting at his nose before letting him trot in the other direction. "Do you really think that little of your boyfriend?"

"My boyfriend?" The words were so quiet, she didn't even realize if she had spoken them out loud.

"Ok well don't be mean and take it back," he laughed, letting the younger woman grow closer to him at her own pace. "I've already said it's true so if you take that away from me, that's just plain rude."

Emily let out a sob, running across the dried up dirt and jumping into her boss' strong arms, her cries echoing throughout the center's residence as she peppered messy kisses all over the older man's face. "You're better," she laughed, her eyes sparkling with delight as she saw the first real smile he had had in months spread over his face. "You finished already!"

"I did," Hotch smiled, threading his fingers through her ebony hair and pulling her in so he could finally kiss her supple lips. "And so did you."

"I missed you," she sniffled as she kissed him back.

"How do you feel?"

Emily's lips curled into a grin, letting her new boyfriend set her down on the ground so she could nestle into his chest. "I feel good." And for the first time in months, she knew it was true.


End file.
